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Little bunny foo-foo is hoppin' thru blog-land

Alpha Heroes is spearheading a Bloghopping Challenge. I know, I told you all to physically restrain me if I even thought about another challenge, but this one doesn't require me to read a book, just to visit new blogs. Readers and blog owners tend to like routine: we keep a nice little list of the blogs we like and visit them regularly, but how often do we branch out and seek out new sites?

I suspect it's not because we're not interested in new, or new-to-us, sites but because we're afraid our already overloaded feed-reader will implode with the weight of cool new blogs added to it. (Am I right?)

Well I have faith in my poor little feed reader (thank you WizzRSS!) and am taking the plunge. Here's the plan:

Starting here (for me, this was Wendi's Book Corner), find a linked blog that you’ve never been to before. It does not have to be book-related. If none of the links in my sidebar are new to you, hit the BBAW list and start there.

Go to the blog you’ve chosen and browse through the posts until you find something you find interesting. Leave a comment. Mention where you found the link. Mention of this challenge is optional.

Using the links in THAT blog, repeat. If you find yourself somewhere that does not have any new-to-you links, go back to the BBAW list. Be sure to leave a comment in each location, mentioning where you found their site linked.

Repeat until you have visited 10 new blogs.

Write a post on your blog showing your bloghopping trail. Content is up to you; you can highlight your favorites, critique the sites, or just post the list of 10.

I’d love it if you link back to this post.

Optional: add your favorites to your own sidebar, or temporarily put up a blogroll widget with the 10 sites you visited.

Optional: Come back here and leave a link to your post in comments.

My trail gets pretty convoluted, but it's a fun trip!

Bookshipper was my first stop, where a review of a YA novel called Secrets at St. Jude's New Girl, by Carmen Reid, caught my eye. It's amazing how many intelligent, well-written YA books are out there! From there, I linked over to.....

The Indextrious Reader (isn't that the best blog name?), where I found an interview with Kate Story, the author of Blasted. Very good reading there. While there, I found a link to...

Austen-tatious (another clever blog name!). Imagine my disappointment to find that the author of this site has recently decided to close it down (just when I was beginning to feel at home....I love Austen!). Thankfully, the archives and links are being kept up for reference and it is a great place to read all things Austen. From there, I linked to...

Word Wenches (I'm getting a complex from all the witty blog names out there), where seven authors talk about all things pertaining to writing. Particularly interesting is a funny post about creativity - or lack of it when you need it the most. They had a link to....

Evil Editor, which is an absolutely hysterical site that you must go see. Scroll about halfway down the page and check out the writing assignment. Good practice for those writers out there. And check out the book queries and critiques while you're there. Unfortunately, I hit a dead end with links. Evil Editor has no links to other blogs...arghhhh. So I had to backtrack and this time ended up at....

Diary of an Eccentric where I found a fascinating review of the novel Loosing Kei, by Suzanne Kamata. Added it to my wish list and then linked to...

A Novel Menagerie. Here I read a nicely written review of Oprah's latest book club choice, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, by David Wroblewski. While browsing the site, I found a link to....

Old Musty Books, which featured a look at the book Long Way Gone, by Ishmael Baeh, about his life in Sierra Leone. I've seen this book and after reading the review, I know the next time I run across this book, I'm buying it. Unfortunately, the site requires you to register with them to leave a comment. So instead I linked to......

Dog Ear Diary and a review of Down to the Sunless Sea, a collection of fifteen stories by Mathias B. Freese which centers around troubled characters. It sounds like a wonderful collection and I'll be keeping my eye open for that one.

Whew. That was quite a trek, but well worth the effort! If you'd like to try your own, leave a comment with a link to it for me...I'd like to see what path you took through the rat-maze that is the blogging world.

Now, what I really need is a do-a-load-of-laundry-challenge. Or maybe a feed-your-kids-challenge. Wash-a-sinkful-of-dirty-dishes-challenge might be useful, too.

"Little Sarah foo foo, hoppin' across the tundra, picking up the librarians and bopping 'em on the head."

I haven't been able to get that out of my head since. :p

My theory is that most of the people who are afraid to fly are nervous mostly because of the lack of control. I have ALL the control (*evil laugh*) so I figure there's not much to be scared of. ha. Me, I'm scared to death of dentists. Seriously...I have to be sedated to even go near their office. I don't know how you all make regular visits to those torture chambers without peeing your pants.

Books I've Reviewed

Traditionally, I am not a fan of any books that try to replicate a classic author's work. I've tried them and they have all failed for me (most recently was the disaster of The Monogram Murders where a modern author tried to write Agatha...

Oh goodness. Okay, I should admit that I'm not a huge, huge, love-everything-he's-ever-written Gaiman fan. I've *liked* a lot of his work (Ocean at the End of the Lane, Coraline, etc) but have yet to really fall head over heels for him. ...

Hmph. Started off like gangbusters; well, sort of. I have a thing for boarding school/prep school books (no idea why, but there's no denying it), so I fell comfortably into the story. While I found the Lolita trope slightly eyeroll induc...